Projects "Saving" a Studebaker

Ray, the unit in my Lark is manual. The steering on this car is very manageable as was the '59 Silver Hawk I used to have. They both used identical chassis components. I personally prefer manual steering, especially when it operates this easily. This car weighed just over 3,000 lbs. when new with a V-8/automatic. With the S.B.C. and 4-speed it'll be much lighter than that

 

My post that began “jack” was intended for @Jack vines in response his his post about which p/s boxes were used on what and when. Sorry if I caused some confusion by not accurately indicating for which “jack” the response was intended.

Ray

 

Ha... no prob. Try sending him a p.m..

 

O.k., this thread is a little borrring... I mean, as I enjoy other threads here on our beloved H.A.M.B., I see that there's a lot more interesting stuff going on out there; Custom fabrication, custom body work, scratch built frames, etc., etc.. In defense to that, I did post a "dis-claimer" on the first page.
The "saving" part is the key. The license plate was dated 1973! When I first discovered this car, it was years sun-baked, sunk into the mud and home to various vermin. It now has a roof over it's head and has been slowly improved upon.
In the mean time, the "shop" has been improved as well. It no longer has a dirt floor, the pigeons have been evicted, it has electricity and actual garage doors. So the snail paced progress can commence in a more practical environment. I sure do miss my lift, though. M'Lady says I'm spoiled... I assured her that most old mechanics do smell that way.
Anyway, I'm not getting anything done sitting here pecking away on this here keyboard, so I'm off to continue the trans' cross-member... even if it does involve laying on my back under a shower of welding sparks. (Boo-hoo)

 

Wow! Nice shop! That Stude is lucky.

 

Oh, thanks... the shop has come along way but has a long way to go; When I got it, it was a neglected horse barn. After I get the Lark's trans mounting finished I plan on getting the air compressor plumbed.

 

The trans crossmember was tackled and brought to exist. I still need to make holes to attach it to the frame before it's painted and installed for "the last time".
I'd post some pics, but am being out smarted by my new 'puter... Grrr!

 

There we go! Old age and treachery prevails again!

 

With the crossmember installed & 4-speed mounted, I checked & found out the drive-shaft I have is too short. Kind of expected it to be the wrong length one way or another... no biggy.
To try & use a manual, crossbar style clutch linkage set up would be an act of futility on this car, due to the location of the steering box coupled with the configuration of the headers ... I'll use hydraulic "activation" as I have on previous builds. But before I get into all of that, I need to see where all the other stuff will be, like exhaust for example.

 

Don’t worry, your thread isn’t boring. I feel the same about my Stude truck thread. But you’re making good progress on a cool project. Especially cool because you’re bringing an old orphan car back to the streets.
Like you, I’m amazed at some of the work displayed in the threads on here. Quite honestly, it used to make me think that what I’m doing these days is child’s play, why post it. But I’ve done top chops, built chassis, built engines and painted my cars, all back before plasma cutters and MIG welders and when bead rollers, brakes and planishing hammers were way beyond the average guy. I built a billet laden street rod and machined every part. I often forget that.
I’m older now and I don’t want to build rusty basket cases or immaculate show cars any more. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to build in retirement until I decided to go back to my roots and build stuff like I would have in the 1960s. With old parts, simple tools, simple materials, creativity and patience.
There’s room here for every approach. There are some lame threads and there are some extraordinary threads and everything in between. Our stuff fits in here somewhere.
I was going to PM this message but posting it may make other members post some stuff that they feel no one would find interesting. Keep on wrenchin’ and posting the progress, I’m looking forward to the startup video. Congrats on the shop.

 

I look for both of the threads you guys put out everyday

 

Thanks a bunch guys... I truly appreciate it!

 

When there is no interest for these kinds of projects here I'm gone. Not every build has to be "show" quality. Personally I'd rather see a real daily driver being used maybe to get to a show to view the art pieces. We used to enjoy the parking lot at the old Oakland Roadster Show almost as much as the cars inside. ANY Studebaker on the road gets my attention.

 

Yeah, me too! Guess I'll keep sluggin' away at it.

 

Trust me, your build is appreciated (and awesome)
Keep at it, there's a lot of us living vicariously through your build.

I recently got my Champ home and have been working at cleaning it up and assessing things. It runs and drives pretty good and shouldn't take too much to make a decent driver.

 

Thanks, Bobby, and way to go with your Champ! I like those & have a couple buddys that have them.
My Transtar started out (with me) as a scetchy "runner"... it ran but not reliably. The more love you give these Studes, the better they get!
Here's a partial before & after of what is now my daily driver as motivation to keep going:

 

You passed up a golden opportunity to put a pit in the shop that would be safe and usable. Now that I got that off my chest. I love your boring threads. I’ll never find a Stude solid enough to build around here so I have to live through you guys. Keep up the good work!
One suggestion though give yourself as much room as possible between the exhaust and the oil filter. Not having enough room cost me 3 big blocks due to cooking the oil in the filter. And turning it into a coke like substance.

 

I worked on Studebakers as an apprentice in the mid '50s, up to 1962 when I went to work at the Cadillac dealer in San Jose (CA)
Ironically, the master mechanic there had a '54 Stude Commander. (With a '57 Eldorado engine) He called it his 'Studillac'.
Mostly stock Caddy mill had factory 2X4s, and a Racer Brown cam. '39 LaSalle box, car was very 'torquey'. Real sleeper.
Studes were kinda 'faddish' in Santa Clara-San Jose. (1962-1968) I had 5 pals that had Commanders, ('53-'54 V8 cars) and installed Stude pickup floorshift trans towers in the B-W top loaders for them. $40 labor. I became fast at it...
I still have a love for '53& '54 Studes, now looking around at Larks.
You guys have my attention! AGAIN!

 

Mike do you remember if those were BW T-86 transmissions. They are a top loader that often had R-10 OD. The T-85 is much stronger but are side loaders. I'm putting a top shift from a Jeep T-90 on a T-86 but it takes some grinding on the shift forks maybe the Stude pick up shift plate would just bolt on.

 

SS, I actually gave a pit some thought. However, due to drainage issues on my property, I decided I would just most likely be building a swimming pool... idea scrapped.

As for the exhaust coming close to the oil filter; good observation, you are spot on correct about that. I've got a plan that goes against my M.O. & that is I won't be able to run a long oil filter as I always have. A stock short filter with a generous dose of anti-heat wrapping on the pipe is in the mix.

Beyond that, I've got a set of ball & socket connectors like the ones shown above and some straight tubes on the way to get the x-haust past the cross members. Baby steps. Then I get to tackle clutch/brake pedals.

 

Could you use a remote filter.

 

I could, but honestly I don't believe I need to. In the picture I posted it does look closer than it actually is. Next time I venture down under I'll get a pic @ a better angle.

 

A few parts trickled in today but nothing I can use for the time being. So I began the clutch/brake puzzle. Using what I have is 50% of the plan and I have a set of swing pedals to adapt. Some slicing & dicing will soon be in order, but 1st to clear the area to see what I'm dealing with...

The firewall is pretty decent. However, the "couple of quarter size holes" in the floor has turned out to be an under statement. On the other side of the firewall there are a few items that will need to be re-located, but nothing drastic.

The bracket for the pedals is to be modified to fit and for the sake of clearance (Clarence) and visibility, I popped the speedo out.

Oh, & here's the different angle of the oil filter vs. x-haust pipe... The filter that on there is an over-sized unit. A standard filter will give 2+ inches more space. I'll wrap the pipe and call it good.

 

My 2 cents on your plan to wrap the header pipe under the oil filter is: every time you change that filter you will get oil on the pipe and after a few times you'll end up with a pipe wrapped in an oil soaked rag. I would just use the smaller filter and not have the smell and fire hazard of the oil soaked wrap. My 64 Stude V8 filter is like that and no matter what I tried it was impossible to not to get oil on the pipe under it when changing the filter.

 

Good point...

 

That amount of rust on a Studebaker floorboard in almost a blessing.

 

You could also use a small piece of curved sheetmetal attached to, & spaced ~1" away from the pipe as a heatshield. Would work well w/the shorter filter, & oil on it wouldn't be a problem. I don't see the wrap as working well there.
Marcus...

 

Thanks guys, you're right and the wrap idea is scrapped.
Furthermore, The first stage of making this a three pedal car is in the books. I wanted to get the swing brake pedal into the same position as the O.E. pedal so I could build around that.

With that roughed in I can now begin to make provisions for the clutch actuation... should be interesting!

 

Well that looks like it’s going to work out nicely. What is the pedal assembly out of?

 

I'm not Mike, and this is kind of hijack on the thread. But about 20 years ago I parted out a 55 Studebaker coupe (it had a tree fall on the roof). It had a BW T-96 trans on the 259 that was in the car, see attached pics. You can see it is side shift configuration.


......now back to our regular programming......